It’s nice to show some love to your favorite local spots and festivals, so vote in your faves. And, if you happen to have appreciated our musings on beer, our beer reviews, and our extensive coverage of the CT beer scene, won’t you vote us in for favorite CT Beer Blogger?

Like this:

Every year, Food & Wine Magazine is on the lookout for America’s best new chefs. So, they put together a list of 100 noteworthy, groundbreaking chefs from 10 different areas then have their readers vote on their favorites from each region. This year in the New England region there’s a familiar face: Jeffrey Lizotte, Executive Chef of ON20 in Hartford.

Down below you’ll find the list of the semi-finalists in the following categories: Casual Restaurant, Upscale Restaurant, Caterer, Chef, and Pernod Ricard Mixologist of the Year. Hopefully you’ll also notice that there are lots of restaurants from Fairfield County that are on this list. Show your love and vote in your favorites!

After reading your comments on our posts, our FB page, and our Twitter, we know that all of you are food critics at heart. You know what’s good, you know what’s great, and you know what’s freaking redonkulous. And, it’s those redonkulous restaurants that need your help to get voted into the Best of Connecticut 2014 survey from Connecticut Magazine. And, you know what? We want to see some major representation from Fairfield County restaurants on this list. We love you New Haven and Hartford counties, but we’re hoping that FC will dominate this year! So, get your vote in by clicking here and entering your favorites in by the end of the first week in October. When you vote, make sure that you leave some comments because they might use what you say in the Best of Connecticut 2014 issue that comes out in December. You can drool over this year’s winners here or even on your iPad, too.

If you’ve spent the last year lovin’ the delicious goodness we’ve bestowed upon you, then here’s your chance to show us your love. Here’s how:register herethen head on over to the Media & Education category. See the place to vote for Best Local Blog and Best Twitterer? Yeah, you can just go right ahead, click on those, scroll on down to OmNomCT and select us to help us win!

And don’t forget, your local favorite restaurants need your help too, so make sure to vote in Best American, Best Chef, Best New Restaurant, Best Hot Dogs, Best Burgers, and tons more. Make sure to have at least 10 votes then when you’re ready, click Finalize My Ballot.

The voting is now live and goes until 11:59 EST on March 24, 2013. One vote per person, so if you can clone yourself that would really help. Unless they would consider a clone the same person…hmmm…

So, be sure to get on that and vote for your faves (that means us too, yay):

Thanks (as always) for your support!! You guys rock!

Here are all the rules for the contest…

Info

It’s winter. And each winter we ask our readers to tell us about the best bars, restaurants, salons, mechanics, clothing stores, and a ton of other awesome stuff in Fairfield County. We’ve been doing the Weekly‘s annual Best of Fairfield County Readers’ Poll for decades now and there are still annual surprises. Last year, readers cast more votes than ever before. We’re hoping to break that record again this year. We’ve added a number of new categories. (Best Donuts, Best Scotch Selection, Best Pickles and more!) And we’re counting on you to point us to the best. Thanks for taking the time to vote, and thanks, as always, for reading.

How it works

How To Vote:

1) Fill in the information in the voter registration box to the left, then click “Vote” in order to begin.

2) After you have registered, you will be taken to the voting page. Select a section (Bars & Clubs, Restaurants, etc.) and vote in whatever categories you choose. Popular choices are provided in a drop-down menu. You may write in a new choice by selecting the “Write in a new choice” option in the drop-down. Please check to see if your choice already exists in the drop-down menu before entering a write-in vote.

3) Do not vote for a business in a category for which it does not apply. These votes will not be counted.

4) You have the option of leaving a comment along with any or all of your votes. Comments are optional. We’ll use some of your comments when we put together our Best of Fairfield County Winners’ issue later this year!

5) When you have entered your votes in any section, hit the “Submit and Continue” button to move to the next section. Once you have hit this button, you can no longer go back, so make sure you are done voting in that section. You must hit “Submit and Continue” in order for your votes to be counted. You can skip sections if you wish.

6) When you are all done voting, hit the “Finalize Ballot” button. This will submit your ballot to us. Make sure you are satisfied with your choices before finalizing the ballot.

7) You must vote in 10 categories before you can submit your ballot. Voting Rules:

1) One ballot per person.

2) Online ballots must be submitted by 11:59pm EST on March 24th, 2013. After this time voting will be closed.

3) While campaigning for Best Of honors is fair game, inducing your fans or patrons to vote through anything that might be constructed as a payoff could result in your disqualification. Asking for votes: fine. Giving someone ANYTHING in exchange for their vote: not fine, as it taints the vote.

4) If it looks like any company is stuffing the ballots we toss all your entries.

5) We only count ballots from this website and paper ballots from the Fairfield County Weekly. If you prefer to submit a paper ballot, one can be found inside this week’s Fairfield County Weeklynewspaper. You may not submit a paper ballot and an online ballot.

The Connecticut Restaurant Association has put together a list of some of the best chefs and restaurants from the state and needs your help. They want you to vote on your favorites for Upscale Restaurant of the Year, Casual Restaurant of the Year, Caterer of the Year, Mixologist of the Year, and Chef of the Year. While we do focus on Fairfield County, there are definitely some great places up for nomination that we’d love to try when we’re out yonder. But, that’s not to say that Fairfield County isn’t represented! Pepe’s Pizza is up for Best Casual (they aren’t just New Haven, ya know), David’s Soundview Catering (yeahhhh!) is up for Best Caterer, and everybody’s favorite badboy chef Bill Taibe of LeFarm is up for Best Chef of the Year.

Just vote by filling out the quick form here and giving your e-mail addy. You can only vote once per e-mail address, so don’t get out of control. :P Voting ends on November 6 at 5pm. The winners will be honored on 11/27 at the CRA Salute to Excellent Awards Dinner at Mohegan Sun. For details on getting tickets or being a sponsor, click here. So, show some love to our local restaurants and vote them in! Here are all the contestants:

June 16 The Adam Currie Band vs.The Mad Things featuring The Good Doctor

All three dates are on Bedford Street at 5 pm.

If you live in or near Stamford, you’ve probably been to at least one Alive @ Five event. This year will be uber-awesome with acts like Third Eye Blind, MC Hammer and The B-52s, but there are other acts yet to be decided. 12 acts will be playing in Downtown Stamford this Friday, May 20, in hopes of being one of the three finalists who will actually play at Alive @ Five! Yeah, damn cool honor.

So, check out some of the restaurants listed below, all linked up for your easy consumption. Check out these spots, do some Omnoming, vote for your faves, and rock on! After this, check out BANDAPALOOZA on Bedford Street on June 2, 9, and 16 to see your favorite band through to the Alive @ Five stage.